mbarry@uunet.uu.net (Marshall Barry) (04/01/91)
thing. When I moved from Phoenix to Los Angeles, I disconnected my number there, and terminated (I thought) my Sprint 1+ access. Wrong. TWO YEARS later, I suddenly received a bill for over $400.00 for long distance for six month's worth of calls. Seems Sprint had been chosen for the "default" 1+ access account, and just reconnected it with my current one in another city, two years later. Another wonderful case where they PROMISED to fix it, and it took three months for them to straighten out the original charges ... in the meantime adding new charges to MY account. Neither letters nor phone calls seemed to make any difference, until I finally had my attorney write them a letter, threatening legal action, a show cause as to why they should be allowed to provide service, and a class-action suit. Matter was fixed in five days. In article <telecom11.235.4@eecs.nwu.edu> John Higdon <john@zygot. ati.com> further writes: > ... headaches and go elsewhere for long distance service. At this > point, Sprint would have to be nearly free for me to consider using > it further. For the record, I have had a Sprint account since it > was Southern Pacific Communications offering the excess capacity of > the railroad communications. Considering the resouces, technology, > and talent that operation has had available to it, it certainly has > become a monumental disappointment. Sorry for really chopping your message, but you brought up a couple of interesting points. First, I had been a Sprint User for QUITE some time myself - but, after a $31K (yes THOUSAND) Sprint Bill (someone hacked my "access code" and handed it out to places I never heard of) - and the fact that it became $31K due to the fact it took Sprint eleven weeks (almost three months) from the time I reported the first "unauthorized accesses" to the time they deleted the code, I was - to say the least - disappointed. When Sprint told me that I would have to PAY that bill, in full, because I was a "company" and it was "probably some disgruntled employee who gave it out to everyone" - I was more than disappointed - I was OUTRAGED! They did everything down to sending collection agents to MY HOME to get this "money that was due them". After several MONTHS of complaints - To everyone from the PUC to the FCC, I finally got to someone in Sprint's office who said, simply, "Do you know where xxxx is?" "No." "Do you know anyone in the xxxx County Jail?" "Where?" ... followed by "This has OBVIOUSLY gotten out of hand ... you reported the access when the total amount due was $640, how much of that is yours and how much is the `unknowns'?" I figured out that I owed about $370 of that bill (which was about our average monthly billing) - and I paid it. They then came after me for another $500 (which THEY figured I had to owe them - and we went round and round again). Finally - I got THAT straightened out, and connected to 1+ for Sprint - biggest mistake I ever made. I got billed three, four, five, and six times for the EXACT same call (time date number, etc. all Identical) and was told to pay it and submit documentation as to why I should be re-imbursed ... etc. Thanks, Sprint, but no thanks. BTW, got billed for SOME calls six or seven months after they were made and billed for two HOURS on a call I know was under two minutes. <mbarry@nyx.cs.du.edu> is also <Marshall.Barry@z1.n104.f169.FidoNet.Org> Data: (303) 657 0126 +&+ (303) 426 1942 3/12/2400 baud Snail Mail: P.O. Box 486, Louisville, CO 80027=0486 [Moderator's Note: It sounds like you have really been through the wringer with those people. Do they still have droids calling you on the phone from time to time offering big savings on your long distance bill, free calculators, and five dollar rebates if you change your one-plus over to them? I manage the phone system in our office, and we had a very sour, very bitter experience with Sprint over a check for several thousand dollars which they misapplied and could not locate. We finally had to sue them. I may write more details soon. PAT]
john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) (04/01/91)
Marshall Barry <isis!mbarry@uunet.uu.net> writes: > Another wonderful case where they PROMISED to fix it, and it > took three months for them to straighten out the original charges ... > in the meantime adding new charges to MY account. The person that spoke with me last month indicated that it takes months for Sprint to resolve billing problems. He told me that he would be following up monthly until charges for the old number stopped appearing. This is not impressive. What I am doing about it is simply turning off all usage of the account until it is fixed. Not one call will be routed over Sprint until two months have gone by with no new charges on them. I have never had this sort of problem with AT&T. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !